After nine years living in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, I'm now living in the French Alps. The natives seem friendly ...guess I'll stick around a while.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

I have a friend here that has no children, but she claims that she loves to hear about mine “Your kids are a riot!” she says.“There’s always some crazy thing going on over at your house!”And I am proud to say that it’s true.

They are a pretty creative, funny bunch.And their tendencies have only been enhanced by living in Africa and not being very exposed to modern media.We do have a TV, but it’s only for dvds and videos.And their viewing is limited to the weekends andthen just for a couple of hours.Asa result, my childrendon’t depend much on outside entertainment.But on the other hand, it can leave certain gaps in their knowledge.Severin, for example, has seen “Spy Kids”, but hasn’t seen James Bond, or anything of that type.So, he ran into trouble recently while playing some elaborate game with his two good American pals.

The boys ran across the living room, Severin shouting “ The enemy has been…..fertilized!”

His friends just looked at him, nonplussed.

Valentine helpfully whispered from the corner where she was reading, “Neutralized, Severin.It'sNeutralized”.